Steam engine



Ndvfll, 1924.

J. 1C. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE Filed Nov'. 21 192) 5&

' ATTORNEY 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 1,515,378 J. c. WILLIAMS STEAMENGINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 m mo ATTORNEY J. C. WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE FiledNov. 21

4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR hm \h w% um Ax w ATTORNEY Nov. 11, 1924- .1 c.WILLIAMS STEAM ENGINE Filgd Nov. 21. 19 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 n R gw knw TQQl INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 11, 1924.

iJNlTED STATES JOSEPH C. WILLIAMS, OF

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

STEAM ENGINE.

Application filed. November 21, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osErH O. VVILLLAMS,

a. citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the countyof Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Steam Engines; and I do declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to thefigures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

1 This invention relates to steam engines and particularly to a portablesteam engine capable of being used as a prime mover for propelling amotor vehicle.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide an inexpensive, light,durable and compact reciprocatory engine capable of generatingconsiderable power.

The invention can be so constructed that the usual crank case can beeliminated and an important feature of the mechanism is the inclusion ofa single valve-actuating cam whereby a plurality of valves in aplurality of steam chests for controlling the steam admission to aplurality of power cylinders may be controlled from the single element,thereby minimizing the required elements for valve control andsimplifying the operation thereof.

It is also important that the cam be so constructed that each admissionvalve will be open to exhaust during the entire'exhausting stroke of thepiston, whereas the inlet side of the valve for the power side of thepiston will be open only a fractional part of the entire stroke of thepiston. By so constructing the valve motion that the exhaust will beopen during the entire time that the cylinder is supposed to beexhausting, loss of power due to back pressure will be reduced to aminimum, if not wholly eliminated.

In order to confine the engine within a relatively small space I havefound it convenient to arrange the power cylinders, the valve chest withthe steam controlling valves, and the exhaust ports in a single block,-.which may be grouped about the center of a power shaft. Each power unitconsisting of a piston and cylinder is adapt- Seriafl No. 516,583.

ed to deliver its power to the shaft so that the centrally locateddriving shaft will receive the power delivered from the several units.

Novel means is provided for delivering steam to the valve chests of theseveral steam units from a main-source of supply and novel means isprovided for exhausting the spent motive fluid to be delivered to an oiland water separator or it will be rendered fit for subsequent use.

There are other novel features of the invention which will appearhereinafter, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in whichFig. l is an elevational view of an engine constructed in accordancewith my invention.

Fig. 2 is v a transverse sectional view through the engine block.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal, sectional view through the engine, parts beingomitted.

Fig. 5 is a projected diagram of the valveactuated cam.

Fig. 6 is an end view of the engine block, showing the inlet manifoldand the exhaust manifold, and

Fig. 7 is across sectional view through the valve rod head guide, thevalve rod head and the roller for engaging the cam groove.

Referring now to the drawings by numerals of reference:

1 designates an engine a plurality of bores for a plurality of engineunits. In actual practice I prefer to arrange an odd number of engineunits so that the liability of deadcentering will be eliminated.

In the present instance I have shown the block as being arranged forthree engine units, the cranks of which are 120 apart so that there willbe equal distribution of the power exerted by the several units on thedrive shafts and whereby liability ofdead centering will be eliminated.

By reference to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the block is provided withthree power cylinder bores 2, 3, and 4, each bore being, in I effect, anengine cylinder but integral with the block. Each cylinder is providedwith a valve chest, the valve chests being designated '5, 6 and 7 Thereis also an exhaust condenser where block in which is cylinder or borefor each power cylinder, the exhaust cylinders being designated 8, 9 and10.

Each valve chest is provided with a balanced piston type of valve, thevalve chest being lined by a cylindrical lining 11 having port cuttings12, 13 and 14 to coincide with the ports 15, 16 and 17. The port 15discharges into the valve chest 6 and it is a counterpart of the ports15 and 15 for the valve chests 7 and 5 respectively.

All the ports 15, 15 and 15 are supplied with pressure fluid through themedium of the manifold 18 having a nipple 19, by means of which themanifold may be connected to a steam supply pipe.

The manifold is fastened to the engine block by the nipples 20 (seeFigs. 3 and 6) having cap nuts 21, by means of which the manifold isbolted to the nipples and the nipples are provided with ports 22 bymeans of which the steam may enter to the inlet ports 15, 15 and 15 topass between the valve pistons 23 and 2 1 on the balanced piston valves25.

ach engine unit is a counterpart of the other so a description of onewill suffice for all.

Attention is called to the fact that in Fig. 3 I have shown in the upperpart of the figure a balanced valve for the chest 6 with the steam portillustrated between the pis tons 23 and 24, while in the lower part ofthe figure, the piston 25 in valve chest 7 is shown as moving to openone valve port 26 for one of the power pistons 27 and uncovering theother port 28 to exhaust steam on the opposite side of the piston;therefore, live steam is being supplied and at this point it is desiredto call attention to the fact that while the ports 26 and 28 alternatelybecome inlet and exhaust ports, the valves 25 are caused to so functionthat the exhaust ports will be opened during the entire exhaust strokeof the piston in either direction. That is, when a piston has moved tosubstantially its full expansion stroke and just before it has reachedthe limit, the valve will crack open the port during the final movementof the piston and then remain open for practically the entire length oftime that the piston is recovering or for practically the entire timethat steam is functioning on the opposite side of the piston to providepower since the ports are spaced so that when the intake port is closedto the live steam, the exhaust port is still partly open at the end ofthe power stroke. This is an important feature because it enables thesteam to be thoroughly exhausted and prevents trapping of the same,which would cause back pressure and decrease the efliciency of theengine.

The particular means for controlling the valves so that the desiredresult just enumerated can be accomplished will be apparent later on.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3 it will be seen that when the steam isadmitted from the inlet manifold, it will enter between the pistons 23and 24 so if one piston is uncovering one of the ports between the twopistons, steam will be admitted to the cylinder but if one of thepistons is uncovering one of the ports between one of the pistons andthe end of the valve chest, then the steam will be exhausting throughthe port 16 or 17, as the case may be, and enter the exhaust cylinders9, 10 and 11 and discharge into the exhaust manifold 29, which is incommunication with an oil and water separator 30 of appropriateconstruction, in turn communieating with the condenser (not shown)designed to condense the vapor or steam back to water so that it can bereintroduced into the boiler, as is well understood.

The exhaust manifold 29 is fastened to the end of the block by aplurality of tie rods 31, 32 and 33 (see Figs. 3 and 6). The tie rodspass through the center of the exhaust ports or cylinders 9, 10 and 11and are tapped into the spacing stay bolts 34, 35 and. 36, which connectthe plate or disk 37 to the engine block 1. The stay bolts 34, 35 and 36hold the plate or disk 37 rigid but in spaced relation with respect tothe block so that the plate can carry certain parts of the mechanismand, in turn, be secured to a complementary plate 38 fastened by pairsof rods 39 and 40, the plate 38 being also fastened to an end plate ordisk 41 by the spacing bolts 42.

The disks or plates 37, 38 and 4 1 with their connections constitute theframe of the machine and provide supporting means for the movable parts,there-by dispensing with the necessity of employing expensive crankcases and the like, the structure being exceedingly light but strongenough to serve the purpose for which the invention is intended.

It will be apparent that the engine block and the plates 37, 38 and 41are all held rigid together by the connections and that the movableparts may be conveniently secured thereto. For example, the drive shaft-3 extends entirely through the block 1 and through the'plates 37. 38and 41, there being a thrust bearing 1 1 in the center of the plate 3?for the shaft; a similar thrust bearing 1-3 in the plate 38 and ananti-friction bearin e6 in the plate 11 whereby the shaft may besupported. Around the shaft and located between the plate 37 and theblock 1 is a lubricating casing 47. which may be supplied from the cupl8 (see Fig. 1), so that the shaft can be lubricated.

Suitable stufiing boxes may be provided in the ends of the valve chestsand piston cylinders. A stufling box 49 of conventional ltll) ous thatthe relative design is shown in Fig. 4 as applied to one of the valvechests and a stuffing box 50 of conventional design is shown in Fig. 4as applied to one of the engine cylinders. It is to be understood thateach valve chest and each engine cylinder may be appropriately equippedif desired. The opposite ends of the valve chests and engine cylindersare closed by plugs 51 and cylinder heads 52 p respectively.

Each piston 27 is provided with a piston rod 53, connected to a crosshead 54, reciprocatorily mounted upon the guide rods 39 and 40 andconnected to each cross head 54 is a link 55 which, in turn, isconnected to a crank 56 mounted in bearings 57 and 58 and on each crankis a gear 59 meshing with the gear 60 on the shaft 43. The cranks forthe three sets of motor units are set at 120 apart and since all oftheir gears mesh with, the gear 60, it is obvious that liability of deadcentering will be avoided and since the cranks are set on the angles ofone-third of the circle, it is obvipositions of the pistons and valvesfor controlling the steam from the respective valve chests will beoperated accordingly.

Splined or keyed upon the shaft 43 is a cam block 61, a diagrammaticprojection of which is shown in Fig. 5, to be referred to hereinafter.

On each valve 25 is a valve rod 62, which projects through its stuffingbox 49 and carries on its end a head 63, the cross section of which isin the form of an inverted V and each head is guided in a block 64fastened to the plate 37 so that there are three plates 64 and threeheads 63 and each. head provided with a boss 65 on which is mounted acam engaging roller 66 to en gage the groove 67 in the cam 61. The. cam61 is held in position by adjusting screws 68, which engage in the endof the cam and in the ends of the block 69 (see Fig. 4) to adjust thecam and block between the bearings 44 and 45 to provide for end thrusts,the cam 61 and block 69 being held in their adjusted position by the jamnuts 70.

The heads are mounted around the center of the shaft 43 so as to besuccessively engaged by the different lobes of the cam 61 (see Fig. 5).

By reference to 5 it will be observed that the cam is divided into twoparts, each divided into fractions of 100%, one-half of the cam beingeffective to open, close and initially open one valve piston 23 or 24and the remaining half of the cam being effective for maintaining thatparticular valve piston open and then closing it. In other words, t efirst half of the cam is designed to open the steam port and the powerend of the cylinder and then close it until the piston has moved 90% ofits power stroke,

then the port through which the steam has just been admitted will openduring the last 10% of the stroke and remain open for 90% of therecovering stroke while the comple mentary piston on the same valve willbe reversing the operation byclosing 10% of the stroke of the pistonmoving into power receiving position and allowing the inlet ort toremain open during 50% of the stroke and closed during 40% of thestroke. Therefore, the power cylinder will be takingin steam duringone-half of the stroke of the piston and W111 be exhausting it from theopposite side during 100% of the stroke of the piston, it beingunderstood that the cam is designed to impart a back and forth movementto the balanced piston valve in the steam chest for each revolution ofthe cam, and the valve heads 63 will be so arranged about the shaft 43that the valves in the steam chestwill be properly timed to function sothat the cranks will receive their power during the proper period ofthrow during the operation of the engine.

As an example, the valve 25 is designed so that when the inlet port, forexample, 26, is opened three-sixteenths, the exhaust port will be openedfive-sixteenths and since the s eed of the cam determined by the strokeof the piston 27 will be such that the valve will operate relativelyslow, the exhaust port will be open approximately one and one-half timesas long as the intake opening, and will close only to allow a slightcushion at the end of the piston stroke. Therefore, there is a variablebetween the inlet opening and the exhaust opening in the pistoncylinder, the exhaust being open practically the entire time that thepiston is moving on its stroke while the inlet opening is only openabout one-third the time. This is an important feature because theexpanded steam can exhaust readily without any back pressure, whichwould absorb part of the power generated by the expanding steam on thepower side of the piston.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

1. A steam engine comprising a block having a plurality of powercylinders therein, valve chests communicating with the power cylinders,means for exhausting steam from the power cylinders, pistons in thepower cylinders, a plate in spaced relation with the block having guidesfor the stems of the valves and for the piston rods, a rotatable shaft,a

cam on said shaft communicating mot-ion to all of the valves, cross headguides, a plate spaced from, but connected to, the first named plate bysaid cross head guides, cross heads for the piston rods movable on saidguides, a plate connected to the second mentioned plate and having crankbearings thereon, cranks in said bearings connected valves in the valvechests,

t0 the cross heads, gears on the cranks, and a gear on the shaftreceiving motion from the gears on the cranks.

2. A steam engine comprising a plurality of engine units grouped about acommon center, a plate spaced from, but secured to, said units, crosshead guides, a second plate spaced from the first plate and securedthereto by said cross head guides, a third plate secured to the secondplate, a shaft extending through the respective plates, cross heads onthe cross head guides connected to the power elements of each unit,cranks carried by the third plate and receiving motion from the powerelements of the respective units, means for driving the shaft from thecranks, a single valve actuating means for the valves of the severalunits, said valve actuating means moving in response to movement of thecrank, means for adjusting the cam between the first and second plates,

and anti-friction bearings in the shaft and second plate, theanti-friction bearings also constituting thrust bearings for the cam.

3. A steam engine comprising a block, an uneven number of steam engineunits in the block and arranged about a common center, a shaft inalignment with the common center, a plate longitudinally; spaced fromthe block and having a central bearing, through which the shaftprojects, V-shaped guides carried by the plate, valve blocks connectedto the valves of the respective units and guided in the Vshaped guide,rollers carried by the block, a single cam on the shaft in drivingconnection with the blocks through the rollers, and means forcommunicating motion to the shaft from the power elements of the severalengine units.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JOSEPH C. WILLIAMS.

